Eighty Mile Swath of Arizona Surrendered to Cartels

On June 3, President Barack Obama hosted Arizona Governor Jan Brewer at the White House for a tête-à-tête to discuss the perilous state of border security along our common frontier with Mexico. Governor Brewer shared with the President the paralyzing fear felt by millions of her constituents caused by the influx of illegal aliens across the desert border and the menacing terror of drug traffickers and human smugglers that have all but taken adverse possession of the region.

President Obama appeared to give ear to Governor Brewer’s laments and he committed to present within two weeks a comprehensive package of assistance that the national government would provide to aid Arizona in their struggle against illegal invasion. Specifically, the President promised to deploy the National Guard to patrol the border and to spend $500 million to bolster border security in Arizona.

Please note, that while the President and Congress have abandoned the people of Arizona to their own devices in guarding themselves against ruthless armed criminal gangs crossing from Mexico, they have faithfully allocated $150 million dollars in order to build bridges for red squirrels to use in crossing mountains so they don’t end up as road kill. What does that say about our national government’s priorities and its estimation of the citizens of Arizona?

Two weeks have passed now since that Oval Office conversation and there has no been no substantial action taken by the President, in defiance of his promise made personally to Governor Brewer.

In response to the President’s broken promise, Governor Jan Brewer (who by now should be accustomed to the national government’s negligent disregard for securing our southern border) sent a letter to President Obama reminding him of his the commitments he made to her and to Arizona and his failure to follow through with them.

Governor Brewer’s letter outlines a four-point “Border Surge Strategy,” a proposal she shared some time earlier in a similar missive to Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

The overall goal of the Governor’s plan for fortifying the strength of our border with Mexico is to implement a threshold standard of “measures to ensure that illegal traffic of any sort is kept to an absolute minimum, and that Americans are safe and secure within our own borders.”

The first of Governor Brewer’s four-point strategy calls for the deployment of at least 1,200 National Guard troops along the southwestern border, with the lion’s share assigned to Arizona. Governor Brewer suggests that a more substantial garrison of at least 6,000 troops would better suit the mission’s objectives.

Additionally, the first point requests that the President authorize the “ significant increase in aviation resources supporting border security operations on the ground.” The Governor makes a particular request for National Guard OH-58 helicopters to patrol the border and give airborne assistance to law enforcement on the ground.

In her second point, Governor Brewer advocates the completion of a border fence separating the United States from Mexico (with obvious exceptions for legal and effective Ports of Entry at various points). In order to control costs, Governor Brewer suggests the use of inmate labor and the purchasing of material rather than the leasing thereof.

The penultimate point calls upon President Obama and the Congress to fulfill their Article IV injunction to protect the states from invasion. Governor Brewer explains that only through detention, prosecution, and incarceration of convicted criminals will the border be truly secure and free from constant invasion in the sense anticipated by Article IV. In order to achieve the goal of fair and forceful application of existing federal anti-illegal immigration laws, Governor Brewer recommends that federal law enforcement agencies (Immigration Customs and Enforcement and Border Patrol) be properly funded and that prisons and courts be fully staffed and prepared to accommodate the increase in docket size.

Finally, Governor Brewer pleads with the President to support the reimbursement of border states for the millions of dollars they spend each year to fight illegal invasion by aliens and the incarceration of those convicted of crimes. The protection of the national borders falls within the province of the national government and border states should not bear the crushing financial burden of federal lassitude.

At the time of the publication of this article, Governor Brewer’s letter to President Obama has received no official response. There was however, an almost laughable demonstration of just how seriously President Obama takes the matter of border security and the terrifying growth in serious criminal activity along Arizona’s border with Mexico.

Eighty miles from the border with Mexico in Arizona, the federal government has posted signs warning Americans not to approach any closer to the border, as it is a region of “active drug and human smuggling” and that those that ignore the warning may “encounter armed criminals and smuggling vehicles traveling at high rates of speed.”

That is President Obama’s answer to the seizure of American territory by foreign criminal cartels: stay away! In light of the constitutional guarantee that the national government SHALL protect each of the states from invasion, such a passive surrender of such a massive swath of the sovereign state of Arizona seems haughty at best and possibly actionably treasonous.

As Governor Brewer so rightly asserts in her video response to the posting of these virtual white flags, warning signs are not enough. These signs are just that: white flags of surrender flying 80 miles within the border of the United States of America. Is such examples of federal contempt of the border crisis enough to convince those who scoff at cries of treason and invasion?

As reported earlier in The New American, the federal government is planning to sue Arizona in federal court to enjoin that state from enforcing the anti-illegal immigration law it passed earlier in the year. The text of the law (known as SB 1070) runs about ten pages, but curiously, none of the administration officials clamoring for the federal courts to nullify the laws of the sovereign state of Arizona have actually read the law.

While the admitted ignorance of administration officials borders on the humorous, the situation in Arizona isn’t. Nor is the federal government’s intractable refusal to protect the citizens of Arizona (and other border states, for that matter) from criminal invasion and from the incremental capture by Mexican drug and smuggling cartels operating on both sides of the (non-existent) fence with impunity and without fear of reprisal.

These death merchants don’t worry about being caught and punished for peddling their criminal wares inside the border of the United States because within eighty miles of crossing into Arizona they will see the signs of our surrender, signs erected by our own national government.To assist Arizona in the funding of the impending legal battle over SB 1070, Governor Brewer has established www.keepazsafe.com, a website devoted to collecting contributions form concerned citizens who desire to help Arizona fight federal tyranny.

On May 26, 2010, Governor Brewer signed an executive order creating the fund. The order stated that money donated would be used to pay legal fees for outside counsel contracted by the state of Arizona to fight challenges to SB 1070 filed by the federal government and others.

As of June 28, over $25,000 has been raised to help offset Arizona’s expected legal fees.

Photo: Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer speaks to reporters outside the White House on June 3, after a private meeting with President Obama: AP Images

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